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Fox News is defending and cheering on President Donald Trump after he had peaceful protesters outside the White House cleared with tear gas so that he could hold a photo-op on Monday, with some network personalities blaming the protesters themselves and offering nonsensical semantic quibbles over whether gas that caused tears was actually tear gas.

There is no line the network will not cross and no limit whatsoever on Fox's willingness to serve as eager propagandists for the president.

<p>The world watched in horror on Monday evening as federal law enforcement officials <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/us/politics/trump-st-johns-church-bible.html" target="_blank">fired</a> tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and rubber bullets into peaceful crowds protesting police brutality and racism, violently removing hundreds of people from Lafayette Square. The attack <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/02/timeline-clearing-lafayette-square/?itid=ap_philipbump" target="_blank">began</a> at roughly 6:30 p.m., well before a 7 p.m. curfew that Washington, D.C., authorities had established for the city. Numerous journalists <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/laura-ingraham-claims-tear-gas-wasnt-used-on-protestors-gets-fact-checked-by-reporters-who-were-there/" target="_blank">were in the crowd</a> and the abhorrent footage was <a href="https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1267588006426357761?s=20" target="_blank">immediately</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LisPower1/status/1267586738639249415?s=20" target="_blank">shown</a> on CNN and MSNBC. Minutes later, Trump addressed the protests in a Rose Garden speech. He then walked through the park and held up a Bible on the grounds of St. John's Episcopal Church, which had been vandalized the night before -- and where law enforcement had just used tear gas to forcefully <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/06/02/ahead-of-trump-bible-photo-op-police-forcibly-expel-priest-from-st-johns-church-near-white-house/" target="_blank">remove</a> people from the premises, including an Episcopal priest. The White House <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1267676026391404544" target="_blank">quickly published</a> a campaign-style video of the president's photo-op. </p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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</script><p>The events were shocking and disgusting, and they have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/us/politics/trump-congress-protesters-tear-gas.html" target="_blank">condemned</a> as such by Democratic leaders, a small handful of Republicans, the <a href="https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/06/02/episcopal-leaders-express-outrage-condemn-tear-gassing-protesters-for-trump-photo-op-at-washington-church/" target="_blank">Episcopal bishop</a> of D.C., and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/american-cities-are-not-battlespaces/612553/" target="_blank">Mike Mullen</a>, among others.</p><p>But Fox has a direct stake in Trump's political success, and so the network's personalities -- from the "news" and "opinion" side alike -- have spent the last two days using a series of shifting defenses to furiously spin what happened in his favor.</p><p>In the immediate wake of the federal police attack on peaceful protesters, Fox simply downplayed what had happened to them in favor of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/after-he-tear-gassed-peaceful-protesters-fox-news-glorifies-trumps-photo-op" target="_blank">triumphantly</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/crime-and-criminal-justice/fox-news-continues-praising-trumps-photo-op-outside-church-ignoring-he" target="_blank">glorifying Trump's</a> photo-op. On Monday evening and Tuesday morning, Trump was described as "retaking this territory" in an "iconic moment" that was "a sign of courageous leadership."</p><p>By midday, Fox personalities were spending more time addressing what had happened to the protesters -- by blaming them for getting tear-gassed by police. The hundreds of peaceful protesters, these Fox figures suggested, had it coming because they were collectively guilty for St. John's being vandalized on Sunday night.</p><p>"You hear a lot of criticism of the president and the attorney general, for the fact that — people are saying in the media and various places, that quote-unquote, 'peaceful protesters' were cleared out with tear gas and munitions in Lafayette Park, so the president could go to St. John's Church," <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/crime-and-criminal-justice/washington-post-columnist-blames-peaceful-protesters-trump-tear-gassing" target="_blank">offered</a> purported "straight news" anchor Ed Henry said on <em>America's Newsroom</em>. </p><p>He then asked former George W. Bush speechwriter and Fox contributor Marc Thiessen, "Left out in some of that, is the fact that these quote-unquote, 'peaceful protesters' set that church on fire the night before, didn't they?"</p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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</script><p>Thiessen acknowledged that "it might be different protesters," before adding, "But look, yes, that's exactly right." He repeatedly alleged that the fact that federal authorities used tear gas meant that by definition, the protesters had not been peaceful. "If they were peaceful protesters, there would be no need to use tear gas," he said. "It means they resisted." </p><p>Fox host Jesse Watters offered a similar defense later that day on <em>The Five</em>. "The media is sour now because they were forced to shoot a photo-op of the president of the United States demonstrating that he is not going to be intimidated by criminals," he said. "It was a very powerful moment for the country. And they are bitter that they had to film it, because it deals a big blow to their lawless side."</p><p>"Now, you are saying these were peaceful protesters," he later added. "You mean the same protesters that lit the church on fire the last night?" </p><p>He went on to claim that some protesters had thrown bottles and that federal law enforcement had simply responded. "So they threw some smoke bombs out and pushed them back -- wow, Armageddon, really?" he said. "This is what we are talking about."</p><iframe class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1267926701780144130" data-rm-shortcode-id="a190bdd5ccc75a295cc77d4a385896f0" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1267926701780144130&amp;created_ts=1591132257.0&amp;screen_name=ndrew_lawrence&amp;text=Do+you+all+understand+what+Fox+News+is%2C+like+do+you+really+understand+what+the+most+watched+news+channel+in+the+cou%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F7uUgIfDBDL&amp;id=1267926701780144130&amp;name=Andrew+Lawrence" frameborder="0" height="150" id="twitter-embed-1267926701780144130" scrolling="no" type="lazy-iframe" width="100%"></iframe><p>By Tuesday evening, the Trump campaign was falsely claiming that tear gas had not in fact been used in the park, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/trump-demands-journalists-correct-stories-on-the-use-of-tear-gas-according-to-the-cdc-it-was-tear-gas/2020/06/02/bf68726c-a544-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html" target="_blank">pressuring media outlets</a> -- including <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/trump-campaign-demanded-retraction-heres-our-response" target="_blank">Media Matters</a> -- to issue retractions and corrections.</p><p>This was a sick and twisted attempt to gaslight the country based on a bullshit semantic effort by the U.S. Park Police, which issued a <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/uspp/6_2_20_statement_from_acting_chief_monahan.htm" target="_blank">statement</a> claiming that it had deployed "pepper balls" and "smoke canisters" to clear the square but that "no tear gas was used." But "tear gas" isn't a specific chemical compound. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains, it's a <a href="https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/riotcontrol/factsheet.asp" target="_blank">blanket term</a> for <a href="https://militaryhealth.bmj.com/content/jramc/161/2/94.full.pdf" target="_blank">chemical agents used for riot control</a> that cause temporary respiratory distress, which encapsulates a variety of compounds including Mace and pepper spray. </p><p>The Park Police also claimed that they only responded after "violent protestors" had thrown "projectiles including bricks, frozen water bottles and caustic liquids." Reporters who were there say <a href="https://deadline.com/2020/06/donald-trump-george-floyd-demonstrators-lafayette-square-park-1202949717/" target="_blank">that didn't happen</a>, there doesn't seem to be any <a href="https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1268175476805308416" target="_blank">video evidence</a> of it, it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/barr-personally-ordered-removal-of-protesters-near-white-house-leading-to-use-of-force-against-largely-peaceful-crowd/2020/06/02/0ca2417c-a4d5-11ea-b473-04905b1af82b_story.html" target="_blank">contradicts</a> the Justice Department's explanation that the park was cleared as part of a previous decision to expand the White House perimeter -- and even if it was true, it still wouldn't justify tear-gassing the entire crowd.</p><p>To defend the Trump administration on these grounds -- including by farcically arguing a distinction between "tear gas" and "gas that causes tears" -- requires either mind-numbing stupidity or fervent and unyielding pro-Trump zeal.</p><p>Fox has risen to the occasion.</p><p>Fox contributor Mollie Hemingway, who frequently appears on the network offering bad-faith claims of liberal media bias, <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/02/media-falsely-claimed-violent-riots-were-peaceful-and-that-tear-gas-was-used-against-rioters/#.XtcNEnwYfhc.twitter" target="_blank">authored a post</a> at<em> The Federalist</em> Tuesday night in which she adopted the Park Police's response as gospel. She lashed out at the press -- including journalists who were in the park at the time and had been gassed themselves -- for pushing the "tear gas lie" and the supposedly false claim that protesters had been peaceful out of anti-Trump animus.</p><p>Trump repeatedly shared Hemingway's post, calling it a "must read":</p><iframe class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1268009894885634054" data-rm-shortcode-id="d0fa89fcfb8160fa2a3473f05d911feb" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1268009894885634054&amp;created_ts=1591152092.0&amp;screen_name=realDonaldTrump&amp;text=Media+Falsely+Claimed+Violent+Riots+Were+Peaceful+And+That+Tear+Gas+Was+Used+Against+Rioters%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FxPtr3zh76e&amp;id=1268009894885634054&amp;name=Donald+J.+Trump" frameborder="0" height="150" id="twitter-embed-1268009894885634054" scrolling="no" type="lazy-iframe" width="100%"></iframe><p><br/></p><iframe class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1268006529678049281" data-rm-shortcode-id="e6745f421a729f4b343d3829f69e631d" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1268006529678049281&amp;created_ts=1591151289.0&amp;screen_name=realDonaldTrump&amp;text=You+got+it+wrong%21+If+the+protesters+were+so+peaceful%2C+why+did+they+light+the+Church+on+fire+the+night+before%3F+Peopl%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FV8ET23gYH8&amp;id=1268006529678049281&amp;name=Donald+J.+Trump" frameborder="0" height="150" id="twitter-embed-1268006529678049281" scrolling="no" type="lazy-iframe" width="100%"></iframe><p>On her Fox show, Laura Ingraham likewise denounced reporting from other media outlets and claimed that tear gas had not been used and that the protesters had become violent.</p><iframe class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1268145394837524482" data-rm-shortcode-id="6c1b94f928bd70a155b9bd35ea23380d" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1268145394837524482&amp;created_ts=1591184397.0&amp;screen_name=MattGertz&amp;text=Of+course+Laura+Ingraham+defended+the+president+having+peaceful+protesters+gassed+so+he+could+do+a+photo-op+at+a+ch%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2F7Qo3q4y1a0&amp;id=1268145394837524482&amp;name=Matthew+Gertz" frameborder="0" height="150" id="twitter-embed-1268145394837524482" scrolling="no" type="lazy-iframe" width="100%"></iframe><p>By the next morning, the Trump campaign's nonsensical spin had infested Fox's "news" side. </p><p>"There is clarity," Fox correspondent Griff Jenkins claimed on <em>Fox &amp; Friends</em>, that "tear gas was not used" and that the park was cleared "after projectiles were thrown."</p><iframe class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1268145924787908609" data-rm-shortcode-id="80f0a422b019186ae1f94c9c060129fd" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1268145924787908609&amp;created_ts=1591184524.0&amp;screen_name=MattGertz&amp;text=No+daylight+on+this+between+Fox%27s+%22news%22+and+%22opinion%22+sides%2C+they%27re+all+carrying+the+president%27s+water+on+this.+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FBSreCIWn88&amp;id=1268145924787908609&amp;name=Matthew+Gertz" frameborder="0" height="150" id="twitter-embed-1268145924787908609" scrolling="no" type="lazy-iframe" width="100%"></iframe><p>Let's grant every wrong Fox premise for a moment. The conduct the network's personalities are defending is federal law enforcement using "pepper balls" and "smoke canisters" to violently clear an entire crowd of peaceful protesters in a public park -- and then at a church -- to get at a handful of ones throwing projectiles so the president could do a photo-op. That's their best-case scenario.</p><p>There is no daylight at all between Fox's "news side," its "opinion side," the Trump campaign, and the president. That's because, as Trump himself has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/president-trump-fox-news-propaganda-outlet" target="_blank">acknowledged</a>, Fox is a propaganda outlet for the president. And now we know that they are willing to act in defense of violent attacks by his administration against peaceful Americans.</p>

Around 2:30 p.m. on June 2, The New York Times' Ben Smith tweeted a note from Fox Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch:

<blockquote>Dear Colleagues,<br/>The events that have unfolded over the past week have left me shocked and saddened. Each of you has been in my thoughts as we watch the tragic death of George Flloyd continue to cause immense pain and spark important discussions around the country. It is essential that we grieve with the Floyd family, closely listen to the voices of peaceful protest and fundamentally understand that black lives matter.<br/>The FOX culture embraces and fosters diversity and inclusion. Often we speak of the "FOX family," and never has the need to depend on and care for that family been more important. We support our Black colleagues and the Black community, as we all unite to seek equality and understanding.<br/>Our mission to provide the best in news is particularly vital at this time. Our brave local and national reporters continue to put themselves at risk to provide the latest information impacting all of us and our neighbors across the country. We support all journalists and will do what we can to protect their safety and denounce calls for, and acts of, violence against them.<br/>This is a time for people to come together in their grief, work to heal, and coalesce to address injustice and inquiry in our country. This is an ongoing conversation, and no one has all the answers in this moment. As we each grapple with how to continue the discussion during this difficult and emotional time, please remember that there are many resources available to you, including our Employee Assistance Program, your HR business partner, and our Inclusion team.<br/>As we grapple with this national tragedy, please stay safe and take good care of yourselves and your families.<br/>My warmest regards,<br/>Lachlan Murdoch</blockquote><p>It's unclear when exactly Murdoch sent this letter out.</p><p>Shortly after Smith sent his tweet, however, Fox News ran two promos for Tucker Carlson's Fox show, the first during <em>The Five</em>, which aired a segment entirely about Carlson's prior monologue.</p><p>And then later <em>The Story With Martha MacCallum</em>, a so-called "straight news" show at Fox, ran this promo.</p><p>Carlson, of course, has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlsons-descent-white-supremacy-timeline" target="_blank">a long and documented</a> history of bigotry, including explicitly contradicting a number of points from Murdoch's memo. Carlson has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-attacks-american-diversity" target="_blank">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-blames-diversity-and-wokeness-spread-coronavirus" target="_blank">attacked</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-compares-goldman-sachs-diversity-policy-racist-ideology-inspired-1848" target="_blank">the</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-guest-there-scourge-diversity-college-campuses" target="_blank">concept</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-its-racist-repugnant-and-disgusting-want-more-diversity-congress" target="_blank">of</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/white-supremacists-are-thrilled-tucker-carlsons-war-diversity" target="_blank">diversity</a> and has, along with <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/how-fox-news-primetime-lineup-demonized-black-lives-matter-2015" target="_blank">many of</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/fox-guest-calls-out-bill-oreilly-equating-black-lives-matter-supporters-nazis" target="_blank">his past</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/fox-news-attacks-black-lives-matter-lawless-after-cheering-cliven-bundys-lawless" target="_blank">and</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/stuart-varney/foxs-geraldo-rivera-black-lives-matter-activists-are-bunch-troublemakers" target="_blank">present colleagues</a>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/fox-friends-sunday-very-concerned-stephen-colbert-wore-black-lives-matter-wristband" target="_blank">railed against</a> Black Lives Matter.</p><p>During Carlson's show last night, a guest accused "angry, rich, entitled Blacks" of destroying America.</p><p><cite><em>From the June 2, 2020, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight:</em></cite></p><blockquote>TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): Why do you think corporate America -- so many of our biggest and most profitable companies have jumped in so aggressively on the side of "Black Lives Matter," for example? <br/>BOB WOODSON: You know, I really think it's white guilt. And it's really white guilt, and also it's an easy out. There are two people that I think are destroying this country, and that is guilty white people and angry, rich, entitled Blacks who continue to play the race card and then -- they don't have to live with the consequences of their advocacy. When they are talking about -- the worst thing that can happen with police right now -- it's very ironic that as police nullification occur and they don't patrol in those communities, the murder rate goes up --<br/>CARLSON: Of course.<br/>WOODSON: And so actually, when these middle-class people who live in safe communities are villainized the police, and then -- but low-income people have to -- the murder rate goes up. That same study you quoted from Harvard, also documented the fact that the police nullification results in less police more Black-on-Black crime, more Black-on-Black deaths. Poor people are being hustled by these middle-class politicians -- as Malcolm X said, they're being bamboozled, scammed, hoodwinked, and one day that sleeping giant is going to wake up and understand who the real culprit is. And it is people who look like them who are failing to use their positions to profit the least of God's children. Instead, they're using it to benefit themselves and their own group.</blockquote><p>Carlson himself gave a monologue on "systemic racism" that made clear that either he had no idea what the term means or he was content to lie to his audience about it.</p><p><cite>From the June 2, 2020, edition of Fox News' <em>Tucker Carlson Tonight</em>:</cite></p><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
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</script><blockquote>TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): You have heard a lot recently about something called systemic racism. Almost no one ever bothers to explain precisely what systemic racism is but they make it very clear, that you are personally implicated in it. Are you? Well, here's the test. Ask yourself and be honest, have you ever mistreated somebody because of his race? If you have, you should atone for it. You ought to find the person you wronged and do your very best to make it better. But if you haven't done that, if you haven't mistreated an actual person, you should know that none of this applies to you. Being born a certain color does not make you guilty of a crime. In this country, we explicitly reject the idea of collective punishment. We don't believe in blood guilt. We don't hurt people because of what their ancestors did. We don't hold entire racial groups responsible for anything.</blockquote><p>Murdoch knows all of this. In fact, he reportedly <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/lachlan-murdoch-gave-personal-support-tucker-carlsons-racist-rant" target="_blank">personally defended</a> Carlson when he espoused white supremacist talking points about immigrants.</p><p>Shortly after the 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas, in which the gunman was reportedly motivated by bigoted, xenophobic conspiracy theories identical to what Fox News and Carlson had aired, my colleague Matt Gertz <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-pushing-white-nationalism-because-murdochs-want-it" target="_blank">wrote</a>:</p><blockquote>Fox News has traditionally treated bigotry as a core part of its business model. But since the political rise of President Donald Trump, the network's commentators have adopted talking points that had previously been the province of hardcore white supremacists. The reported manifesto of the gunman who murdered 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, TX, on Saturday is all but indistinguishable from transcripts ripped from its prime-time shows. This shift is not an accident but a programming decision, one the network has pursued even as its hosts' racist rhetoric has triggered costly ad boycotts. <br/>Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch are ultimately responsible for this toxic programming. Rupert, chairman of parent company Fox Corp., laid the foundation for the shift. He then ceded much of the day-to-day authority to Lachlan, who maintained that heading as the Fox Corp.'s executive chairman and CEO. <br/>Fox is feeding its audience a poisonous stew of bigoted, xenophobic conspiracy theories because that is what the Murdochs want the network to do.</blockquote><p>That was true then and it's true now.</p><p>Few people are as responsible for the state America is in as Lachlan Murdoch and his family. Don't let this new statement persuade you otherwise. Fox News viewers for sure will not.</p>